Cancer is both a cause and an outcome of poverty. Cancer
negatively impacts families’ ability to earn an income with high treatment
costs pushing them further into poverty. At the same time, poverty, lack of
access to education and healthcare increases a person’s risk of getting cancer
and dying from the disease.

In 2008, 55 percent of new cancer cases were reported in
developing nations. Africa had about 715,000 new cancer cases and 542,000 cancer
deaths. According to the International
Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), by 2030, these numbers are projected to
nearly double (1.28 million new cancer cases and 970,000 cancer deaths), with
the potential to be even higher because of the adoption of behav­iors and
lifestyles associated with economic development, such as smoking, unhealthy
diet, and physical inactivity. Click here to learn more about Cancer in Africa.

World Cancer Day, an initiative of the Union for International
Cancer Control (UICC), provides us with the chance to raise our collective
voices to improve knowledge around cancer and dispel misconceptions about the
disease.

Tobacco use is the single most preventable cause of cancer death,
accounting for 20% of cancer deaths worldwide and for about 6% of cancer deaths
in Africa. Although current prevalence
of adult cigarette smoking is low in Africa, cigarette consumption is
increasing in parts of this region because of the adoption of Western behaviors
and aggressive marketing by tobacco companies that
portray smoking as a stylish activity, particularly targeting youth and
women. Smoking among youth in Africa is
almost as high as and sometimes even higher than in adults.

Cigarette smoking not only increases the risk for lung cancer, it
is also linked with an increased risk for 13 other types
of cancer in the body. In addition to this health burden, tobacco
use is closely related to poverty in developing nations. Families often have to sacrifice essential
household expenditures such as food and education in order to afford tobacco.

While most African
countries have signed the World Health Organization (WHO) Framework Convention
on Tobacco Control (FCTC), few
have implemented tobacco control measures or policies according to the
framework. This epidemic can be curbed by adopting and enforcing proven tobacco
control strategies such as raising the price of tobacco products, banning the
advertisement of tobacco products, and banning smoking in public and work
places. These interventions can reverse the trend of rising tobacco use in
Africa and save lives from tobacco-related cancer deaths.

Each year, February 4 – World Cancer Day provides us with an
opportunity to unite together and raise our voices around the world about the
rising epidemic of cancer. Every year, nearly 8 million people worldwide die
from cancer. Many of these deaths can be avoided with increased governmental
support and funding for prevention, detection, and treatment programs. To see a
change in these numbers, and the project numbers for the future, urgent action
is needed to raise awareness about cancer, dispel myths and misconceptions, and
develop practical strategies to address the disease.

To help spread the word, we’ve created an infographic that highlights the
disproportionate way cancer is impacting the developing world and the sheer
number of people that cancer is affecting globally.

In 2010 alone, new cases of cancer totaled 13.2 million,
costing $290 billion worldwide. These numbers are projected to rise to 22.2
million new cancer cases in 2030. That’s comparable to every person in
Australia getting cancer every year. Projected cancer-related health care costs
skyrocket to $458 billion by 2030 if no action is taken with costs to implement
strategies to address common cancer risk factors in low- to middle-income
countries only costing $2 billion per year.

To view the full infographic, visit cancer.org/globalburden.
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